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This take is *exactly* right. If there's one thing I wish I could go back in time and do differently when consulting w/ faculty about emergency remote teaching, it would be to deemphasize synchronous/asynchronous convo and move to a conversation about authentic engagement. (1/8) https://twitter.com/tjoosten/status/1386713630784294912
Part of - but certainly not the ONLY reason - Zoom became the classroom was because of the misperception that asynch teaching just meant dumping content into videos. Lots of online learning experts offered strategies for asynch engagement, but alas. Zoom U persisted. (2/8)
I'll just speak for myself here: if *I* had focused more prof dev on engagement touchpoints, I think the approach could have been stickier: "How do you want to engage with your students in this part of your course?" "What does engagement look like to you?" (3/8)
Being able to move to a conversation about authentic engagement also means not seeing your course solely as a content repository. I realize that's a *huge* shift in thinking. And at a different point in my career, I would have said, "talk about outcomes instead." (4/8)
I recognize now that just charting course outcomes and aligning activity to outcome is still not quite enough. We have to think about the *user experience* of an online class and to design for those experiences. Experiences can align w/ goals, but it's not always so linear (5/8)
@Flowerdarby's concept of "roundabout design" is fantastic to this end and I wish I had that concept sooner to describe effective design decisions ( https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-design-and-preparation/planning-a-great-online-class-through-roundabout-design/). Maybe it wouldn't have moved the dial on Zoom U, but it gets us past the asynch/synch rut (6/8)
Now that more campuses are "repopulating" and considering hybridized models, I keep hoping beyond hope that an opportunity will open up to talk about what designing for engagement really means, especially w/an array of choices beyond the reactionary Zoom classroom.
A big part of this effort will be iteratively engaging in convos about class goals, opportunities for engagement, and tech's affordances & limitations for making that work possible. I'm cautiously optimistic that there's opportunity for critical digital pedagogy ahead. (8/8)
